How to Resist Sickness and Disease
Photo by Katerina Kerdi on Unsplash
By Tom Shanklin
We know that God heals in many different ways. Sometimes it is through the gifts of the Spirit, like gifts of healing and the word of knowledge. Sometimes it is through the laying on of hands. But I also believe that God wants Christians to learn how to use their own faith to resist sickness and disease.
I know in my experience I have seen the Lord heal people miraculously and sovereignly, but I’ve also recognized at times that God’s people need to stand in faith to receive their healing. And even though God sometimes uses me to minister healing to others, I am not immune to sickness. In fact, I have had battles in this area, just like many others do.
Last year, I learned something about how to resist sickness. I was scheduled to conduct healing services in a church in Iowa. A week or 10 days before the service, I began to have symptoms of a cold or flu. Each morning I would wake up and begin to feel those symptoms begin to manifest in my body. I say it this way, “I was tempted to get sick.” We can be tempted to get sick just like we can be tempted to sin. Whether it is sickness or sin, either one is from the devil, so let’s just call it like it is.
So often we think, “Oh, everyone is getting sick. This is just part of life.” But notice what the Bible says…
So often we think, “Oh, everyone is getting sick. This is just part of life.” But notice what the Bible says, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” Acts 10:38, KJV. Peter said that those who Jesus healed were oppressed of the devil. I think it would help us all to see that sickness is of the devil and healing is of God. We need to know who the enemy is in our life and what he is doing.
I was highly motivated in this case not to get sick. The last thing I wanted to do is to call this pastor and tell him I couldn’t come and hold a healing service because I was too sick. Because of this, I determined to set my face like flint to resist sickness.
So each morning I would wake up with this temptation and each morning I would resist. The symptoms would begin to come on me and I would resist them. During my prayer time, I would submit myself completely to God and his Word. I would meditate and confess truths from the Bible about healing. Then I would exercise my faith against the sickness.
You might say, “How did you do that?”
Okay, let’s think about this. First of all, when we talk about faith, we are talking about something that is happening in the unseen realm.
The Bible says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1, KJV. The sniffles you are experiencing or the pain in your body or the MRI results all pertain to the seen realm. But faith deals with the unseen realm. Faith is like a picture on the inside of you based on a spiritual, rather than a natural reality.
So, for example, when David said, “… who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 1 Samuel 17:26, KJV, he was seeing something in the spirit that could not be seen in the natural. The giant was 9 feet tall, and David was a boy. There was no way for him to defeat this enemy. But inside he SAW Goliath going down. He saw the greatness of God. It was something that was inside of him because of his relationship with God. Through his relationship with the Lord, he had cultivated a warrior spirit, and he saw himself as someone who could defeat the enemies of God.
Likewise, this is where it starts with you. You need to see sickness as an enemy and the God who lives in you as greater than sickness. This comes from cultivating your relationship with God, fellowshipping with Him around His Word and beginning to see things as they really are in the unseen realm.
The Bible says, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” 1 John 4:4, KJV. Here, John is talking about wicked spirits. He says, you have overcome them because the Greater One lives in you.
What’s he talking about? He’s talking about a spiritual reality for every born again child of God. He’s saying that every child of God has God living within him by the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught this truth to His disciples before leaving the earth. “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” John 14:23, KJV. Jesus died on the cross to free us from the guilt and punishment of sin so that He could then come and live in us by the Holy Spirit.
So here I am, facing a giant. Each day those symptoms would try to come on me, and each day I would resist sickness. I’ve got the background knowledge that God is in me. That is foundational. But I had to actively resist the problem that Satan was trying to put upon me. I had to fight!
The word translated resist means “to set one’s self against, to withstand, resist, oppose.” Think of someone that is in a battle or a competition or someone that is facing an attack. In these cases, you need to get busy and RESIST!
It’s a like a football player running for the goal line and the defensive back is running up behind him to tackle him. He puts his arm out and gives him a stiff arm and he is able to make the touchdown. That’s what we need to do in the spirit. We need to give the devil (sickness) a stiff arm.
Now notice this scripture. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” 1 Peter 5:8, 9, KJV.
How are we to resist? “Steadfast in the faith.” In other words, our faith is not be “on again, off again.” It is to be ON all the time.
How are we to resist? “Steadfast in the faith.” In other words, our faith is not be “on again, off again.” It is to be ON all the time. We are to keep the switch of faith turned on. When we do this, we are giving no place to the devil (sickness).
So how to you give the devil a stiff arm? It’s is the result of power coming out of your spirit, which is joined to the Holy Spirit, which sets up a force field around you to drive out and protect you from sickness and disease. You might think of it like the spaceship in the old Star Trek television series, which used a force field as protection from attacks. God gives you a force field to protect you.
Just in case an illustration from a science fiction show sounds too far out for you, let’s go back to the Scripture. “But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.” Psalms 3:3, KJV. And “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” Psalms 91:1, KJV. These are not just metaphors. They are spiritual realities.
But these things are not automatic. God has given you His Word so that you can exercise your faith and find victory. As the Scripture says, “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” Ephesians 6:13, KJV. You have to do something! You have to PUT ON the whole armor of God. And one of those pieces of armor is called the shield of faith. With it, you can quench ALL the fiery darts of the enemy, including sickness.
So each morning I was tempted to get sick. And each morning I resisted. I saw a picture in my spirit of my force field. I released that power within me by faith. I realized it is not my power. It is His! I saw it not as coming and going, but remaining about me. I didn’t have to sustain it. I just had to keep the switch of faith turned on. It is God’s power working effectively in me. Those symptoms tried to come upon me, but I never got sick and was able to fulfill my mission successfully. Praise the Lord!
Now some might say. Oh, that was just a cold or the flu. But praise God for overcoming the flu! David overcame the lion and the bear, and as a result, he could overcome the giant. “Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.” 1 Samuel 17:36, KJV. You’ve got to start somewhere. So start using your faith on the enemies in your life today.
Resist the devil, and he WILL flee!
For a much more in-depth teaching on this subject, listen to our podcast—“How to Overcome Sickness and Disease.”
This post originally appeared on Tom Shanklin Ministries on June 6.2016.
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